She is a 2 month old Pekin that is having seizures. I have read the information about niacin deficiency and would like to try to supplement her diet and hope things go better. However, my ducks share their space, water, and food with the chickens. Here are the questions this and other advice have lead me to ask...
Will the niacin supplement harm my chickens?
If she's having seizures due to lack of niacin, rather than an illness, toxicity or genetic fault, then no, and in fact you should supplement the others if you believe insufficiency rather than the other possibilities is the cause, otherwise they too may end up the same. But, it can be hard to figure out which one it is.
Would it be okay, or a good idea, to supplement all of the ducks water?
Not very familiar with ducks but as with chickens see a lot of threads on this forum involving ducks who also need supplementing with niacin. I would give them a choice of fresh water and supplemented water.
Brewers Yeast versus Niacin.... What is the difference and which is better?
Brewers Yeast as far as I can see but I've never had to supplement mine beyond the normal feed, but then again the normal feed I give them is hand mixed based on their needs, whereas many people relying on commercial premixed feeds are having a lot of deficiency problems.Different individuals of the same or different breeds can have different needs, even siblings in the same family can have different needs.
A brief mention was made about poultry vitamins, would this be what I should use?
Yes, you should most likely use some, as vitamins and minerals etc work together; your body (and animals' bodies too of course) utilize these nutrients in conjunction with one another to synthesize and process other nutrients. Lack of complete nutrition, i.e. with overly, unnaturally refined foods stripped of their natural complement of other nutrients, can result in malnutrition as the body may refuse to process some vitamins when they are not in correct balance or form, because it can be harmful to you in such a state. This is how you get obese but malnutrition-suffering humans and animals who guzzle their feed desperately yet can never get what they need. They may be fat but they're starving. The body locks up some nutrients in fat while waiting for a complete whole food diet to enable it to process these artificially isolated nutrients. Commercial feeds labeled 'complete' are causing a lot of people deficiency diseases in their flocks, so it appears it's best to not trust the label, supplement. Even if yours appear in good enough health, many diseases of deficiency take years to kill or even show symptoms, they can even take decades, and in the meanwhile, the animals generally look like they're in good enough health. For this reason I'm not a fan of settling for good enough.
What about a combination of niacin in the water, apple cider vinegar in the water, and brewers yeast? Too much?
I'd keep them separate and have fresh water on hand for them as well, at all times. Given a chance most animals will self medicate, and while there can be trial and error in their learning, generally they will do fine.
If it is metal poisoning, can that be treated from home? If yes, how?
Apples are one way to detox metals. The pectin specifically is helpful there, they're used against lead, mercury, aluminum, etc as they're one of the very few foods containing a detoxer that crosses the blood brain barrier. But there are other herbs and foods that also help detox metals, as well as some pharmaceutical alternatives. If they're drinking out of metal containers that aren't stainless steel, or consuming lead paint, or foraging around a garage that's had cars dismantled within it, or anything like that, then you'd need to stop that.
Any information would be helpful. The poor thing is just so innocent and confused when this happens to her. We have only witnessed two episodes, but that does not mean they do not happen when we are not watching. If she, alone, should have the supplements I will separate her for her own good, but I would like to avoid the stress to her from being apart from her mates if possible.
It may also be possible that she is consuming a toxic plant, so even if you have known toxic plants that they usually don't touch, checking to be sure can help eliminate that possibility. If it's a plant toxicity she may benefit from large doses of vitamin C but if you medicate her or supplement her that can be unhelpful at those times, lessening some medications' effects.
Best wishes.
